to asked for a break down of what you eat if only spending £40/£50 a week on shopping

[littlemissbossyshoes]

when on other posts I often see poster claim to feed a family of 4 or 5 sometimes with pets for less than £50 a week. I have often asked for a bit of a break down or what they have for their evening meals this has never ever been answered.
is it all lentil stews and make a chicken last five meals or can it really be done still having healthy tasty meals and not cutting back on fresh fruit?.

Magic. Is cooked right a marrow is straight from heaven. 50p I. The fetes. One is enough for 4-6 people. You remove the seeds and put in anything you like. We tend to brown mince then put any left over veg, peas, anything left in your fridge. Sometimes I out gravy grandsons on top. A lot of water is made in the cooking so the grandsons turn into gravy. Warning through the smell us unbelievable(as in nice) when it's cooking. Makes you sooo hungry. Cover with foil and leave on low. No other veg is needed very filling...
An example... www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chorizopepperandcous_75307

Bridget toilet paper £2.99 from super drug. Kitchen roll 99 p shop the thick one on its own not the 6 as they rubbish (It's massive and really think and better than the expensive ones). or if super drug on offer that all. All toiletries from 99p shop. Love the Colgate max one best but dh likes the arm and hammer one. Shampoo again 99p shop. Don't fancy the 99p toilet paper and the super drug onE us a good make. However if sainsburys etc do offer on toilet paper i buy there. I have no loyalty to any shops. They to be used. I god limited budget and hope to get the best I can for the money. 99p and poundshops have Lots of good makes there... Dustbin bags Lldl are the best as they don't break.

I can give you my food plan for this week if it's helps. Shopping bill was about 42 in Aldi and about 5 in asda. 2 adults (tho one only around at dinner) an 8yo, 6yo and a 2yo. All big appetites.

Mon- scrambled egg and beans.
hummus and carrot wrap.
veg pasta bake.

Tue -cinnamon porridge w/ raisins.
tuna wraps.
fish, wedges and mixed greens (kale, runner beans, green beans and peas)

Wed -banana American style pancakes with yoghurt.

Carrot and coriander soup with bread rolls. . Fennel and Leek risotto.

Thur- wheatabix and strawberrys.
Cheese and veg pasta salad.
Veg quiche, wedges and salad.

Fri - Boiled egg and toast.
Greek salad and pitta.
Sticky pork and radish noodles.

Sat - Porridge with blueberrys.
Sweet potato and chickpea soup.
Spring stew.

Sunday - French toast.
Salad nicoise.
Chilli and jackets.

Snacks are mostly fruit. If we have puddings its normally fruit and yoghurt. Hope it helps.

People keep going on about the chickens. The reality is that many people eat a lot more than the recommended portions of meat.

A normal medium chicken is about 1.8 kg, about half that will be meat, the rest bones etc. If you serve your roast dinner with stuffing, roast potatoes and other vegetables, 2 breasts between 4 people is ample.

You then take the meat off the legs and use these in a pie, risotto, curry, tagine, etc etc etc - put vegetables in the meal and again, this will do 4 people a full meal.

You will then have the carcass with scraps of meat on it including the oysters and quite a lot of other meat on the back and any other bits still stuck to the carcass.

If you boil this to make stock and use the stock in something like a noodle soup with the bits of chicken and other vegetables that is how you make a chicken do three meals for 4 people. Instead of a noodle soup, you could add pearl barley and carrots/onions/swede to make a broth.

This is how it should be and making fewer meals than that is being a bit greedy really.

It's also important to note the types of things that people with smaller than average shopping budgets don't buy. They probably don't use Waitrose or Ocado, they probably cook from scratch a lot more than eating ready prepared food.

They probably use more traditional cooking methods where meat is a smaller, but still satisfactory, part of the meal, accompanied by seasonal vegetables and pulses, as described above, or use cheaper cuts of meat like pork shoulder rather than steaks or lamb.

They will shop around and stock up on things on offer, rather than just buying what they need, as they need it from the same supermarket every week.

They probably don't buy much in the way of fresh fish, organic meat, fresh berries or other imported fruit, prepared fruit and vegetables, fresh juices and smoothies. Things like berries and fish can be bought frozen for less than half the cost of fresh.

Just the difference between picking whatever you fancy from expensive supermarkets like Waitrose and buying just what you need from Aldi can reduce the weekly bill by more than half.

thenapoleon

My main shop of 100 pm includes toilet rolls, cleaning stuff, dishwasher tablets, shampoo, shower gel but all are Aldi versions so easily less then 20.

I think I put in my post that I feed 2 adults and 2 gangly children with adult sized appetiite. No special dietary requirements or I'd have mentioned.

It is fairly easy to shop cheaply and well, but only if you plan and are rigid about not wasting stuff! Before children we easily used to spend 70-80 on food but this would include a 3 tub of fruit salad, prepared food that would just need bunging in the oven, 12 pack of muller lite which I would never think about buying now (HOW MUCH?!?!?!) . I just used to walk into Tesco, pick what I fancied with no thought to how I'd use it or what I already had in, loads would get wasted. An extended period of skintness forced me to change my ways and even though I'm financially comfortable now, I still shop the same.

1 - value pasta
1 - value pasta sauce
1 - value weetabix
47 - wine*

*can be used in place of milk for the moistening of weetabix

No food waste and no ready meals..... Cook own cake as tastes nicer

The other thing we do is when something has run out, we find a way to love without it, we don't top up. The only possible exception is milk I think (but I always buy enough of that). Run out of fruit? No one's going to die being served carrot sticks for a couple of days instead of fruit at snack time. No bread? There's probably flour of some description, we can make flatbreads/soda bread. No cheese means a tin of tuna for sarnies etc etc.

I agree that it's pointless comparing a family with one small toddler and a cat with three rugby playing teens and two adults though

SorryfortheTypos yes, that sounds like a similar amount to us, for a similar amount of people. I do all toiletry shopping at the 99p or Poundstretcher or one of those, except dishwasher tablets and loo roll which we bulk buy at Groupon, lasts for ever and saves having to keep buying them every week or two- the loo roll delivery lasted over 6 months but you have to have an attic/under the stairs or somewhere for storage.

I'm just pointing out that the OP mustn't feel bad for not being able to shop for four or five grown people (I've found my 8 and 10 year old eat just slightly less than me, so female portions, my husband eats much more) for £40 a week. I'm sure if you have an allotment or ate nothing but value pasta you could survive, but not eating nutritious varied food with a decent amount of veggies and fruit.

napoleoen - agree although I think calculatorsatdawn may have it right!

Good point about the carrot sticks Hopefully.

Carrots are very cheap when compared with pineapple/grapes/berries etc and probably stay fresh a bit longer so less waste - I could quite easily eat a few carrot sticks as snack alternative to fruit.

I do think it would be quite hard to feed 4/5 adults on 40-50 pw (and teens will eat as much if not more than adults) but if you're talking preschoolers instead, it is probably doable - the increase from 2 adults to a family including one or two toddlers is probably fairly insignificant - you could almost just buy the same amount of food and just share it with the LOs.

It's also important to consider whether we are talking about FOOD, or everything that comes from the supermarket, which will obviously include cleaning products, alcohol, nappies/wipes if needed and perhaps books/toys/flowers/DVDs etc.

Some people will mean one thing, and others something else when saying how much they spend.

We probably spend about £45 for 2 adults plus nappies and cat food. Muesli with yoghurt and a banana for breakfast. DH makes packed lunches for us both which is sandwich, yoghurt and fruit in summer, I make soup in winter or I often eat up leftovers for lunch. Evening meals almost cooked from scratch, tend to have a lot of pasta or rice based meals. Buy seasonal fruit and veg and batch cook things like chilli for the freezer. I'm veggie which keeps the cost down but DH often cooks meat on Sunday and uses cold cuts in his sandwiches. We don't really buy snacks except fruit but we bake at the weekend. We make all our own bread and get 3 loaves out of a 75p bag of flour from Aldi. We grow herbs and chillies on window sills as they are expensive to buy and we grow a few veggies and salad in the summer, all much cheaper than the supermarket! Haven't managed to do quite so much this year due to arrival of first baby but hoping to get sorted again next year.

The advice OIMBT gives would be my base line. You do have to meal plan - don't use fridge door inspiration for meal prep each evening. Chickens and other roasts can be multiple givers but the end meal will be a soup stew sort of thing - very tasty. With chickens I do get a 3 meal deal at least - the first roast dinner; then a rice stir fry with some of the meat and finally soup - I love soups and you can sell this to the less enthusiastic family members by adding some good quality fresh bread for under a £1. Batch and use of the freezer is also a must otherwise you cant get the best out of your left overs - so a nice tomato pasta sauce can easily go in the freezer if you've had enough of its ingredients for a few days then it can reappear next week when you need to even out the shop. People quoting 50 a week for shopping are often talking averages - everyone needs an extortionate lightbulb or the cleaning products topping up once in a while but if you can think about minimal waste and more than one meal per purchase you are on the right track. Also beans - ever so versatile to bling them a bit I fry chopped peppers and onions with a little chilli - add the beans and then some fresh coriander - chorizo if you are meat deprived and it is just gorgeous.

BTW Londonrach - what are gravy grandsons??!! Sorry but I'm killing myself at that!!

One of the things we've had to stop doing to stick to our budget is trying new dishes. We often cook from scratch (except Mondays). DH and I love Thai green curry, butternut squash pilaf and chimichangas.
DC however don't like any of the above which is why they have a pizza on Fridays and their choice of DVD and we hope DH gets home early enough so we can have a meal of our choice together.
Once a month I try and put a new dish together and make them try it. They didn't like shepherds pie initially but love it now.

We spend sub £40 but again we are tea total veggie/vegans who shop at Lidl and the pound shop.
Last night we had quorn fillets done in pasta sauce with pasta and salad followed by blackberries from the garden

Quorn fillets. £1.49 for pack of 6, jar of pasta sauce, 75p. Pasta 30p, salad, 1/2 lettuce, 2 tomatoes, 1/2 cucumber cost no more than 75p and the blackberries were free. With the kids off we usually have home made soup for lunch which can cost under 50p for all of us. Lots of barley, rice and any left over vegetables with a veggie stock cube pulped in the mixer.

Tonight it is quorn mince cottage pie with frozen veg. And more blackberries.

OP, you do realise that people who spend £40-50 do it because they have to, not just for a laugh? If I could spend £250 a week on groceries I would.

I spend £40-50 for two adults, a small child and a baby. Including nappies, wipes, cleaning products.

Fruit - apples, bananas, pears, tinned fruit. DS1 eats 2 pieces of fruit a day, but other than that me and DP don't eat much. Baby has a bit of mashed banana or something.

Veg - mostly tinned or frozen, only really buy tomatoes, carrots and potatoes fresh

Meat - a chicken lasts 3-4 meals and that would be the only meat we'd have that week. Or I'd buy a pack of mince to bulk out. We have tuna once a week or occasionally tinned salmon.

Dinners - frittata, chickpea/lentil curry, sausage casserole or toad in the hole, pasta bakes, lasagne, risotto

Lunches - bake our own bread and tend to have sandwiches, jacket potatoes, pasta or leftovers

I bake biscuits or pudding is usually yoghurt, fruit, sponge puddings.

Breakfast - toast or cereal

Drinks - squash, occasional bottle of wine or some beers.

Cleaning products mostly from discount places

Oh and when I say sub £40 that means for everything. I do use Tesco for their value range loo paper. 65p for 4 pack rolls x 400 sheets as opposed to their 6pack rolls which they are trying to get you to buy at £1.95 and I have 1 teen and 1 nearly teen

OP, you do realise that people who spend £40-50 do it because they have to, not just for a laugh

Financially I could spend a lot more but I do it because I hate spending money.

I find that a bit... odd. If I had lots of money to spend on nice food for my children then I would.

I find superdrug own brand toiletries the cheapest (and nice too), have heard good things about Aldis own brands.
Aldis laundry liquid and washing up liquid are fantastic value.
For spices (which really help with vegetarian recipes) Tesco sell a value range, or try the world food aisle.
Saintsbury's basic range is good value. Most of the things are nice or at least worth trying once.

hollie cheap food can be nice

Cheap food can be nice. But there's lots of nice expensive food that I would buy if I could afford too. I'd be feeding my children all kinds of exotic fruits and fresh fish, organic milk etc etc if I could.

I'm with Running, could spend more but don't see the point in spending £50+ on groceries week in week out, partly because with two toddlers, wtf is the point of buying 'quality' food (decent cuts of beef etc) but also because it suits us to spend less on food to have more to spend elsewhere.
I think growing up poor has probably affected it too, meal planning & bargain hunting is natural whereas dh with his middle class background would think nothing of spending £200+ a week.

I'm doing an Ocado shop tonight so might spend a little more.